User blog:Aquamarinesandopals/de-spell-opment challenge one: opaline
opaline glass | philomela towerbird | auliver midas ill probably end up doing some others along the way as well. oops. i. hogwarts house question one: what hogwarts house would your oc be sorted into? bearing in mind that students are sorted according to values, opaline is obvious. opaline was raised by her parents to be brave, one of gryffindor's primary values, and learning what bravery means to her is a journey she personally has to work through. though valuing justice is often associated with hufflepuff, it is a priority additionally found in gryffindor students, due to their houses emphasis on being noble and chivalrous, another value shared by opaline - she doesn't think obsidian being harmed for their sake is just in the slightest. her pragmatic nature, down-to-earth personality, and natural leadership make her an excellent fit for gryffindor house. plus the idea of her wielding the sword of gryffindor is at least a little bit cool. bonus round: i think opaline probably helps out in the infirmary in hogwarts a lot. she'd have a cute brown and white fluffy owl (called seacole) as a pet and is probably a pureblood witch. her patronus is a nightingale. '' * a nightingale is opalines pet largely on the basis that nightingales are said to use their song to hide secret loves. also, florence nightingale.'' auliver is a lot harder to place, but i think he would be suited to ravenclaw. though not exactly book smart, once again, students are put into houses according to their values. ravenclaw house preaches acceptance, originality, creativity, and wit, all traits auliver values and shows. he rejects being forced into a mold by his family and wants to follow his own creative path in life, which happens to be satirical comedy and music. i like to think ravenclaw is far from the bookish stuck up stereotype it has, and is instead filled with loads of creative young teens angry at how the current education system doesn't really promote learning. given that auliver doesn't attend 90% of his classes purely because he doesn't believe them to be beneficial or interesting, this is definitely a feeling he echoes, meaning i think he'd make a pretty great ravenclaw. bonus round: auliver probably comes from a pureblood family, his dad a champion quidditch player for ravenclaw when he attended. he has big boots to fill and enjoys doing exactly the opposite. his favourite class is muggle studdies and he has a pet toad called electra. he has three siblings in the school, two in slytherin and one in hufflepuff, all in the year below. philomela is a ravenclaw, without a doubt. she values learning and loves to do, spending most of her time reading to increase her knowledge. she also has a creative seek and loves to be challenged both creatively and academically, so i think she'd suit the house well! plus it's fitting to me that the ravenclaw dorms are up a tower. bonus round: philomela is likely from a pureblood family that put an emphasis on tradition, though she herself doesn't value it, only following through on traditions because of expectation. she'd have a pet owl. it would take a lot of work for her to be able to cast a patronus, but when/if she does, it'd be a raven. '' * i chose a raven for philomela because of the tower of london, which keeps 6 (and one spare) ravens in its grounds. their wings are clipped, with superstition saying that should the ravens ever leave then the tower will fall. philomela's wings are metaphorically clipped, her family fearing that if she gives up her destiny then their story (which involves a tower...) will fall.'' ii. inspiration question two: which historical or fictitious figure is your oc’s greatest inspiration? this is a very tricky question for me!! im so bad at stuff like this. in terms of our history, i think opaline would find florence nightingale and mary seacole to be inspiring figures. florence nightingale is a well-known figure in history, battling sexism and revolutionalizing medicine. she laid the foundation for professional nursing in england and did work in social reform. mary seacole did similar feats and the two are in many ways similar, though mary seacole's story is less frequently told. when the war office denied her work she went and set up her own hotel and assisted the injured during the crimean war - the same war nightingale helped with. this, along with her battle against racism, made her a pioneer of nursing, something which i think opaline would find inspiring. once again, auliver proves to be much more difficult. he doesn't take an interest in history, so it is hard to find figures in history he would relate to. he does enjoy his fiction though, so finding a figure there is a little easier. i like to imagine, though inaccurate, auliver would be a huge fan of hercules from the disney film of the same name. both are awkward kids who strive to find where they belong, plus there's that whole angle about the dangers of fame in the disney film, something which auliver can no doubt relate to. plus, he's from greek mythology! maybe the story isn't super accurate all the time, but i think he could appreciate the setting and all the little references and nods to the source material in there. dave strider from homestuck is another character i think auliver would find inspiration in. dave was brought up in a frankly abusive home and chose to hide behind a "cool kid" personality for a long time. he fears he is never as good (brave) as those around him, but the plot kickstarts a journey of self-acceptance and discovery for him. dave enjoys music and rap and is very witty, traits auliver would see in himself, making dave's journey all the more relatable and personal to him. bonus round: though neither historical or fictional, if auliver was in our world, he would definitely admire the likes of bo burnham, jon cozart, and thomas sanders, people who use comedy and song often to parody and critique society. thomas does this less so than the others, but i think auliver would admire his commitment to making others happy in a way he can relate to. iii. fight or flight question three: is your oc more flight or fight? ehhh i think my answer for this one will be long-winded and generally uninteresting! for simplicity's sake i've made this more relevant to my oc's day to day lives and not, for example 'they're being attacked by a tiger, how do they react?'. opaline is naturally more of a fight person, thanks to how her parents raised her. this is not to say she will always fight rather than flight - opaline is able to pick her battles well and deals with over thinking, often resulting in her panicking and fleeing rather than fighting (which is what happened to her on legacy day). still, if opaline were to always follow her gut instinct, she'd be a lot braver than she realizes. i wish the question was fight / flight / freeze because that is definitely what auliver's more usual reaction. in terms of his life, auliver doesn't flee from his family because he loves them and wants to remain close, but he doesn't have enough courage to fight them in ways that aren't just small 'fuck you's. ultimately he remains frozen in place, unable to fight back but unable to run away. he isn't good at addressing problems when they come up, but he isn't exactly good at getting himself away from them either. he freezes until he feels comfortable to fight or flight, so i don't feel that i can really assign him to either. philomela is definitely a mix of flight and freeze. she starts by running away from problems, unable to directly face things that upset her. she sneaks around to avoid confrontation and would rather not acknowledge something than leaving herself and others upset. still, if forced to directly confront things, she tends to just freeze up and cry a lot. iv. face question four: what is the most unique facial feature of your oc? for opaline i think the obvious answer is her vitiligo, the patches of paler skin that she has on the left side of her face and by her right eye. it's not a common feature and i think it would be one of the first things people would notice about her face upon meeting her, despite similar paler patches existing on other parts of her body. bonus round: i think opaline's favourite facial feature, on herself, is her eyebrows. to me, auliver's eyes are the most unique feature on his face. i draw them with these little flicks on the bottom that i don't draw on any other oc and when i fail to draw auliver with these lil flicks he always looks a little off in my style, making it an important part of his design. i don't quite know how these translate onto a real human (eyelashes? skin crease/fold? weird eyeliner?) but even in-universe i think his eyes are his most unique feature. as mentioned he has the lil flicks (however they might translate), thick eyelashes, and eyes that are a warm brown colour, edging on red. it's not a colour i've ever seen in real life (though seeing as brown is the most common eye colour, that could be coincidence), nor one i've seen in tons of oc designs, so i'll go with that as my answer. bonus round: auliver's favourite thing about his face is his eyes. does skin tone count? cause if so, philomela is so deathly pale that i think that tends to be what most people notice about her face first. it comes into heavy contrast with her lips, which are pouty and usually a bright red color. she'd make a great snow white, come to think of it. bonus round: i think philomela quite likes her lips. v. theme colours question five: what are your ocs’ “theme colours”? are these colours used for aesthetic, or is there a deeper reasoning behind them? now this is my kinda question! opaline largely wears red, with shades of black, grey, brown, and white to break that up. her metal colour is silver. i didn't settle on this colour scheme for opaline for a long time! i had real trouble picking her colours. i originally imagined her in blue but found that this made her look to sailor-y with what her design was at the time. then i tried a mint green and other pastel-y crystal colours, but decided this didn't give the right vibe at all. she came close to having an orange/brown colour scheme, inspired by stained glass, but i felt that red suited the idea of medicine and nursing a lot more. i also like that it contrasts apple and raven - she is the first to rebel in her friend group and wears red and her boyfriend, a very firm royal, wears purple. this also allowed me to address my frustration that red is usually tied to rebellion (blood, the anarchy symbol, resistance, anger) and purple to royalty, which doesn't really fit with the rebel-royal alignments in canon. bonus round: opaline's favourite colour is red. auliver gets a bit more of a boring answer for this one. auliver wears large amounts of gold and although it's more of an accent than anything else, it's the most prominent colour in his design. this was done because i thought, aesthetically, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have the child of king midas not wear gold. canonically, auliver wears gold because he wears a lot of his family's clothing line, at their request. to me, this highlights that he does still value his family and hold them dear, no matter how much he takes issue with what they do. it's not really relevant to the question at all, but i'd like to note that auliver wears a bronze-y shade of gold, reflecting that he is taking on his father's role (his father is named bronze). his sister, aulivia, wears yellow gold, the gold mentioned in original myths. this is because it is the type of gold most people think of when they hear gold, symbolizing that she is far more willing and able to take on the midas role. bonus round: auliver's favourite colour is white. philomela wears a great deal of white (and light grey colours), though i couldn't tell you why. yellow would have been a more obvious choice, considering she is the canary princess, but since that made more sense to belong to the character who turns into a canary, i didn't use the colour for philomela. i just always imagined her in white. i suppose it could be said to reflect her soft and gentle nature? canaries can also be white, apparently, we just tend to think of them as yellow, so.. it works, imo. bonus round: philomelas favourite colours are light pink and beige. vi. sin / virtue question six: what deadly sin and heavenly virtue does your oc most represent? i still have not settled on this answer otl am sorry, i'll probs update it with the mbti one. vii. genre swap question seven: quick, your oc has been thrown into an alternate universe! which genre would your oc be most uncomfortable in / unused to? honestly this question kind of confuses me because i'm not sure what it wants me to say? realistically i think my ocs are gonna be equally as uncomfortable in a horror film as they are in a western as they are in a sci-fi film, because they aren't.. from those universes. i'm not sure there's a way to determine which of those would be.. "worse". heck, these ocs don't exist in our universe. i think they'd probably feel pretty uncomfortable even being in our world suddenly. i'm sorry otl this is such a cop out i just can't rly think of any way to answer this. i suppose anything in the horror genre would be different enough from eah that it'd make them uncomfortable so. that. i guess. bonus round: auliver loves reading and watching anything that is comedic and satirical. he has a soft spot for animation. opaline likes fantasy stuff as it provides a fun break from the heavy reading in medical books. she also loves a good romcom. philomela reads a bit of everything. she enjoys nonfictional stuff and reads a large amount of poetry. viii. childhood question eight: what did your oc do to entertain themself as a child? finally smth that isn't gonna kill me to answer asdfghjkl; being royalty, both opaline and auliver had to do everything that comes along with that. as you represent a country of people you are expected to be well educated and versed in many areas. you must speak well and have good media presence. it's not uncommon for royal children to speak many languages and play instruments too. opaline fits this idea well. specifically, opaline spent many hours playing the piano as a child, as well as learning other things 'essential' for her story. sword fighting and horseriding were learned from a young age because of this. in terms of hobbies, opaline was a huge fan of playing doctor and nurse (obsidian was happy to oblige) and was quick to find and throw herself into medical books. she always enjoyed drawing and designing her own outfits but picked it up more seriously as she got older (same with scrapbooking and journalling). auliver's childhood was definitely different, primarily because, in addition to being the heir to a kingdom, he was constantly in the spotlight, essentially growing up on TV and in media. when the poor boy didn't have a camera in his face, he spent many, many hours playing around on the beach and enjoying the sea. to this day that's where he is most comfortable. he was very close to a girl called idlette growing up and they enjoyed many hours together, from playing in the sea to watching youtube back at auliver's house, another fond past time of his. auliver also watched a lot of reality tv growing up. rather boringly, philomela did a lot of what she does now. reading. she read, played the flute, watched TV, and read some more. she drew a fair bit too, but as a kid, she mainly just read books and watched tv. ix. destiny swap question nine: if your oc had to swap their destiny with a friend (or close acquaintance), who would they swap with? i think it depends on the exact rules of the au! in most circumstances, though, i think opaline would swap with gloria diva. gloria isn't on the wikia yet, but she is the daughter of the legendary lady godiva, who rode naked through town to make a stand against her husband. i think opaline would enjoy going into a role where she knows she'll make a difference. additionally, such a swap would mean she is more 'free' to do things that aren't strictly destiny related, as there's less to work with. plus, no killing or ogres or hurt boyfriends! that being said, if obsidian didn't swap out of his role, i can't see opaline wanting to change. she can't just leave him unable to get saved. if destiny swapping means you just sorta switch places, and hence get the other person's family, auliver would probably swap with grave. her family are weird and they know it; they just enjoy being themselves and they don't care about being judged. auliver has to admit envy of her situation and would probably switch places in a heartbeat, considering he thinks his entire family hates him. plus, once again, prince(ss) charmings don't tend to have major roles, letting himself have more freedom to do what he wants to do. philomela does not fundamentally mind her story, primarily only taking issue with the fact her destined lover and her don't actually love each other. i think she'd take the chance to swap with any character who has a story that doesn't end up with marriage, or that doesn't have romance as a primary focus. i think out of the characters i have on the wikia atm, auliver would have the most appealing story to her. x. mbti type question ten: what is your oc’s mbti/myers-briggs type? update: got the mbti answers! cause this gets a bit long, i've listed each oc and then put the explanations for each under a collapse. note: these answers were provided to me by my friend matt!! so it's all c+p from him. ilu matt <3 opaline: infp - the mediator. from 16personalities: "INFP personalities are true idealists, always looking for the hint of good in even the worst of people and events, searching for ways to make things better. While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, INFPs have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine. Comprising just 4% of the population, the risk of feeling misunderstood is unfortunately high for the INFP personality type – but when they find like-minded people to spend their time with, the harmony they feel will be a fountain of joy and inspiration." auliver: entp - the debator. from 16personaities: "Taking a certain pleasure in being the underdog, ENTPs enjoy the mental exercise found in questioning the prevailing mode of thought, making them irreplaceable in reworking existing systems or shaking things up and pushing them in clever new directions." philomela: isfj - the defender. from 16personalities: "The ISFJ personality type is quite unique, as many of their qualities defy the definition of their individual traits. Though possessing the Feeling (F) trait, ISFJs have excellent analytical abilities; though Introverted (I), they have well-developed people skills and robust social relationships; and though they are a Judging (J) type, ISFJs are often receptive to change and new ideas. As with so many things, people with the ISFJ personality type are more than the sum of their parts, and it is the way they use these strengths that defines who they are." xi. philosophy question elven: what is your oc’s strongest philosophy on life? i take it this means like.. their life motto or rules they live by? that's how i'll take it at least. there is definitely a bit of an overlap with opaline and auliver here. opaline pretty much lives by the hippocratic oath. to not cause harm, to share knowledge, and to help those in need, no matter what. she tries to be brave and believes in standing up for (no, with) the little guy. aulvier just wants to have a good time and make people laugh, honestly. considering his family, it is no surprise that over time he has become increasingly concerned with being himself and learning to have fun while doing just that. similar to opaline, he believes that standing up for the little guy is important. auliver's the kind of person who will not stand bullying in any, primarily due to his upbringing. though it might be a little hard to see through his persona, he tries to be inclusive and welcoming to all, and comedy is how he achieves this. philomela definitely has nihilistic tendencies. to her, most things are meaningless because they're all gonna be forced to live their stories (and then die) anyway - there's no point in rebelling because this is the way things are and there's nothing she can do about it. this isn't so much her own philosophy though, but one that is brought on by her depression and upbringing. deep down philomela just wants to love and learn (and to love learning). education frees the mind and all that jazz. xii. dreamcast question twelve: if a live action movie was made with your oc, who would you cast as them? alternatively, how would you go about finding someone to cast as them, or what criteria would you use to determine your dreamcast? i don't really do faceclaims for my oc because you could show me like 50 people and they could all be right just.. in a different way? if that makes sense. for example, cutiepiemarzia and natalia dyer both look like opaline to me, but neither of them look similar. personally, all that is important to me is that characters aren't whitewashed and that their heritage is not ignored. xiii. childhood friends question thirteen: what friend group did your oc surround themself with in the equivalent of spellementary school? middle school? how does it compare to their friend group in highschool? opaline's primary childhood friend is obisdian, who she has hung out with since diapers. as children, they hung around a lot with another pair of fairytales (a certain canary prince and princess) who happened to be in the same area. they hung around a fair bit (they regularly all played instruments together) but despite attending the same middle school and high school, they aren't really super close. to this day their families still have get togethers. i'd say their relationship is familiar but not to the point where they're friends, having grown distant as they all got older. they're working on fixing that though! opaline doesn't strive for a big friend group and prefers a few close friends, so her group right now in ever after high (herself, obsidian, o'kane, star, chelsea, and kirk) is probably the largest one she's ever been in. opaline knew star from middle school and they hung out a little bit then, but i don't think she had any other friends she was super close to then. auliver has never really had any friends. he knew idlette from spellementary school and they were (and still are) very close, but auliver was homeschooled for most of his academic life thus far and so never really made friends through school. as such, that makes his two or so friends at ever after high his largest friend group so far - something he is lowkey very happy and very nervous about. he's definitely extroverted really, so although he doesn't quite know how to interact with huge crowds in terms of friendship and not audience, he's welcoming the learning experience. unlike auliver, philomela does not welcome the learning experience of sudden large amounts of people. she's getting used to it, but large groups still make her uneasy. she has never really had a lot of friends and she doesn't necessarily mind that, though deep down she definitely knows it would be better for her to have a larger support group of friends. the biggest change for her has probably been actually making some friends in high school. she's ever close to canary and has been reconnecting with opaline and obsidian. xiv. adoration question fourteen: ''' "how do i love thee? let me count the ways." what does your oc '''adore beyond measure? any particular reason(s) for this adoration? opaline loves obsidian (and all her friends! but particularly obisidian), her chosen field of study (she enjoys making herself useful and helping others), and a damn good take out pizza, thank you very much. auliver loves his family (well, mainly his siblings), the internet (as both an opening to freedom and a place where he can interact with people who genuinely like him) and friends (he doesn't have many, so he truly cherishes the ones he does have). philomela loves learning (by extension, she loves the feeling and smell of new books), quiet walks in the wood, and hugs/other physical ways of showing affection. she loves love too, though it's not exactly a healthy love. xv. social media question fifteen: '''what '''social media '''does your oc use? what do they post on it? do they have a different persona online than they do in real life? '''opaline is a big princetagram user. she enjoys taking photos and princetagram makes a great virtual scrapbook. she frequents flitter, mychapter, and her mirrorblog as well, where a lot of her posts are just automatically posted over from princetagram. i think her social media self is very similar to her real self, honestly. auliver uses all the social media, but flitter and mychapter (not to mention his mirrorblog) are his favourites. his online personality is an odd mix of who he genuinely is and his persona in general. over time they have become more accurate reflections of him, with less and less memes being posted and more stuff that actually matters to him, as he breaks away from his family's image. eventually, auliver ends up starting a youtube channel with grave and emmett, which he enjoys a lot. philomela loves throneblur and spends most of her online time there. she mainly reblogs tings from her favourite book series or art she finds pretty, nothing terribly exciting. she probably has a vent blog too. like most students at the school she has a mirrorblog. when writing this i realised that i have absolutely no idea what social media mychapter is supposed to be a parody of. is it myspace? like. srsly? do all these kids use freaking myspace? is myspace still actually a thing in the ever after high universe? what. the same applies to mirrorblogs. i have no idea what social media that's meant to be. pls enlighten me. xvi. the me inside of me question sixteen: everyone inserts a bit of themselves into their oc. what part of you is present in your oc? oop this is a little bit personal. cue my tragic backstory parental troubles are definitely a common theme in my ocs and i think that's largely because i had a lot of parental troubles growing up. i don't have a dad (though i've had several step dads) and my mum and i, although better now, spend a lot of my life fighting and clashing, often physically (my mum was not abusive, we both just tended to throw things and yell a lot). we're fine now, but real talk it kinda fucked me up and so a lot of my characters have some kinda family issue, as that's just what comes naturally to me. i find family to be interesting and huge part of what makes people themselves, so even aside from that, it's just an interesting area that i enjoy writing. in terms of... less angsty things, auliver definitely has my love of social media and idk. i think i have a comedic streak? i enjoy making people laugh and i believe laughter is the best medicine, similar to auliver. philomela explores idea of love, something i'm very passionate about. opaline doesn't have much in common with me, imo. i'd like to argue that i'm a caring person and a natural leader, but really opaline is much more of the ideal me than the actual me. xvii. divergent question seventeen: '''what '''divergent faction '''would your oc be in? i know notihing about divergent, lmao. from what i understand, you're born in a faction, stay there til 16, then pick which one you wish to devote yourself too? i'll go wtih that. '''opaline, as i've mentioned, values bravery, but i don't think the lifestyle of dauntless would be to her suiting. she'd probably end up in abnegation, which is where i believe the nurses of this universe come from? so it works. i can't really see auliver in any of them. at all. oops. philomela would probably have been born erudite but transfered to amity. i took the official test, after coming to my own conclusions, and this is what i got. opaline = abnegation / auliver = erudite / philomela = amity even tho the test says auliver would be in erudite i really just. can't see that. xviii. dear roommate question eighteen: '''imagine if before your oc knew their room assignments, your oc had to write a letter to their future roommate'. what would be contained in this letter? i'm writing this one up, so check back here soon! xix. tea time '''question nineteen: '''if your oc could invite '''three people to a dinner party', whether real or fictional, past or present, who would they invite? xx. fashion question twenty: if your oc could dress any way they liked, disregarding social convention and financial situation, how would they dress ? xxi. development question twenty one: what was the biggest change in personality your oc witnessed from childhood to teenagehood? xxii. dnd question twenty two: '''what is your character's '''dnd alignment? according to a test: opaline: lawful good auliver: chaotic good (this is my alignment!) philomela: lawful neutral xxiii. smash bros: the internal struggle question twenty three: '''perceived self vs real self vs ideal self. if these three versions of your oc got into a fight, '''what would they be like and who would win? this question is definitely kind of complicated to answer. opaline's ideal self is a calm, cool girl who is able to lead and be trusted with ease. she is kind, benevolent and always helps those in need, doing so with little stress or worry. things come naturally to her, and at the end of the day, she always has time for her boyfriend and family, whom she is close to. opaline's real self is a stressed out girl unable to admit to her own her own problems, trying her best to help others and balance expectation and desire. opaline isn't too harsh on herself and is usually pretty realistic, so i think her perceived self is close to her actual self, just one that puts more emphasis on the amount of stress and worrying she does. hands down, ideal opaline would win, and i expect that's gonna be the case for the rest of these. auliver's ideal self is an independent man who has been able to come to terms with his frankly awful upbringing and has moved past it. he has a career and name separate from them and is enjoying being himself, no longer hiding behind a persona. he is popular and well liked and always knows what to say. auliver's actual self is a boy too scared to be himself out of fear of being hated and marked a disappointment. again. he acts rude and abrasive to push people away so he doesn't have to worry about eventually losing them. when he does get attached he is keen for validation. i think auliver perceives himself to be just the worst. in his mind he's unlikable and a coward, unable to stick out his shitty situation or stand up for himself - he's pushed along and used and he hates that. obviously, i think ideal auliver would win in a fight. philomela's ideal self is a girl who is sweet, graceful, and intelligent. she always knows just what to say and it would take something huge to shake or upset her. she's come to terms with her flaws and has learnt that love isn't the be all end all and is probably in a healthy, happy relationship. in terms of what she actually is, philomela is sweet and intelligent but lacks the ability to stand up for herself. she lacks faith and so doesn't even try to change the way things are, resulting in a rather unhealthy romance situation. she does poorly under pressure and cries at most things. this isn't dissimilar to how philomela views herself. she sees herself as an unlovable cry baby who really can't do anything right. she knows her actions in her relationship cause harm and is racked by guilt and sees herself as a coward for not being able to do anything about it (interestingly she doesn't see her nihilistic side/lack of hope/faith as a flaw. she believes those views make total sense.). one again, ideal philomela would clearly win in a fight. xxiv. fictional universe question twenty four: '''what '''fictional universe '''would your oc '''most want to transport themselves into? i don't think any of my ocs are that into any series to wanna be in their universe? so let's just say harry potter. xxv. muse-ic question twenty five: '''what '''musical album do you think best represents your oc? i'm not really into listening to whole albums? that's just now how i tend to experience music, i suppose. so for this challenge i made playlists for each of my ocs! i'll link to a seperate blog post shortly. Category:Blog posts Category:De-spell-opment Challenge 1